Australians should pirate Hotline Miami 2 following ban, says dev

Many folk are understandably miffed that Hotline Miami 2 has been refused classification in Australia. Following the Classification Board's confirmation yesterday came an official response from publisher Devolver Digital claiming the offending material had been misrepresented. Now a spokesperson from studio Dennaton Games has gone one step further, suggesting Australians should go ahead and pirate the game.

So there you go. While it's nice to have the developer's blessing to download a video game for free, it's not hard for Australians to purchase banned video games digitally. Whereas other recent titles like Saints Row IV and South Park: The Stick of Truth have been slightly changed to accommodate the Australian Classification Board, it doesn't look likely to happen with Hotline Miami 2.

"Though we have no plans to officially challenge the ruling, we stand by our developers, their creative vision for the storyline, its characters and the game and look forward to delivering Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number to fans very soon," publisher Devolver Digital wrote yesterday.

Update: The original version of this article didn't credit the email's source, r/PCMasterRace. This has been corrected.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.